Ep. 178 The costs of offending religious sensitivities

A faculty member at Hamline University lost her job. Twelve staffers at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were murdered. And Salman Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed. All of them offended certain people’s religious sensitivities.

On today’s show, we are joined by Amna Khalid and Michael Moynihan to discuss the risks and costs of teaching, talking, writing, and creating art about religion, particularly Islam. We also discuss the recent #TwitterFiles reporting.

Amna Khalid is an associate professor of history at Carleton College and host of the podcast “Banished.” Michael Moynihan is a writer, reporter, and co-host of “The Fifth Column” podcast.

Show notes:

• Transcript
• New York Times: “A Lecturer Showed a Painting of the Prophet Muhammad. She Lost Her Job.” by Vimal Patel
• The offending image
• “Most of All, I Am Offended as a Muslim” by Amna Khalid
• “Hamline Student Newspaper (the Oracle) Removed Published Defense of Lecturer Who Showed Painting of Muhammad” by Eugene Volokh
• “We must stand up to Iran’s threats to free speech” by FIRE’s Sarah McLaughlin (reflecting on the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks)
• “Capsule Summaries of all Twitter Files Threads to Date, With Links and a Glossary” by Matt Taibbi

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